Roots of Donut Trumpet

In the past two years more data has been created than in the entire previous history of the human race and by the year 2020, every human being will be creating almost 2 megabytes of new information every second. It’s not hard to see why Big Data is a revolution for game developers – it’s an endless source of content. Using it, programmers can easily create virtual worlds that almost perfectly mirror the real one.

However such virtual worlds – just like the real one – are vast, but finite. Without means like procedural generation or other automated methods to add new content, it poses a risk that resources utilized by the game will one day be exhausted, rendering the whole project unplayable.

As our first game, Landlord Real Estate Tycoon was getting more and more popular, it became apparent that one day we may face this very challenge. The number of players was growing with each passing day, but with it the number of ownerless properties was shrinking. Even when inactive players were removed from the system, this wasn’t enough. Without new properties to buy, players in certain areas wouldn’t be able to enjoy the game, but adding fake venues would go against our policy. In Reality Games we value the reality.

That’s why we decided to create Donut Trumpet. By making two games based on similar mechanics it was possible to divide the audience without making anyone feel like he’s missing out on a part of the fun. But simply making another Landlord wouldn’t make much sense.

One of most distinct differences between Landlord and Donut Trumpet is their main character. Charles is a greedy and obstinate businessman, older, but still full of energy especially when it comes to making money. Although his contentious attitude and competitive spirit may seem appealing to some, there’s also a large group of people who will find him off-putting. That’s why we decided to go into a different direction with Trumpet. To accomplish that we asked for help Fil Dunsky – a talented Russian artist. In his works Dunsky uses smooth lines and cheerful colors, creating instantly recognizable style, which perfectly matched our needs. And so the portrait of Donut was made – a portrait of moody, yet laid back and fun-loving man always looking for a chance to expand his empire.

This decision not only helped to avoid a in-game “overpopulation”, but also allowed us reach new people with different tastes and preferences while still sharing the love for trading properties. Now everyone has a bigger chance to buy their favorite venues, no matter where they are and when they joined the game.